Search

Miss Hokusai

Directed by Keiichi Hara (Colorful, Summer Days with Coo) and produced by Ghost in the Shell maker Production I.G, the historical coming-of-age tale relays the story of O-Ei, the daughter of Japanese illustration legend Hokusai, responsible for creating the iconic Edo-era woodblock print series “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.” Although the film takes dramatic liberties with the story of O-Ei and her famous father, the set-up is accurate in that O-Ei was an artist and worked as a production assistant in her father’s art studio.

As all of Edo flocks to see the work of the famous painter Hokusai, his daughter O-Ei toils diligently inside his studio, unknown to the public. Her masterful portraits, dragons and erotic sketches—sold under the name of her father—are coveted by upper crust Lords and journeyman print makers alike. In public, O-Ei knows and respects “her place,” but at home in the studio, she’s as brash and uninhibited as her father, smoking a pipe while sketching erotic drawings that would make contemporary Japanese ladies blush. But despite her talent and fiercely independent spirit, O-Ei struggles under the domineering influence of her father and is ridiculed for lacking the life experience that she is attempting to portray in her art.